This issue originally published as A Course for TeachersOctober 1993, Volume 1 Nr 2, Issue 2

The Joy That Is Us

Often, when we ask young people what is it that they
want out of life, the response is, "To be happy." It is natural for humans to
move toward the sources of joy. A Course in Miracles states, "Everyone seeks
for what will bring him joy as he defines it." Humans gravitate to people, places and
things they believe will bring them joy. Students are no exception.

It is doubtful that youngsters spend much
time analyzing the effects of their thoughts on the world. They do not consider the
effects of others' thoughts. Without knowledge and practice they (and we) simply react.

As aware teachers, administrators,
supervisors and parents, recognizing that minds are joined, we become the makers of
expanding joy. In A Course in Miracles, we read, "Nothing is harmful or
beneficent apart from what we wish." The grace we project is the grace
we get. No matter what the drama of the present moment, we approach our teaching with the
grace of calmness and the joy of possibility. The Course teaches, "From you
can rise a world they will rejoice to look upon and where their hearts are glad. In you
there is a vision that extends to all of them, and covers them with gentleness and
light." When we are graceful to students, colleagues, support staff and
adminstrators, the grace is returned. The world becomesgraceful. Those who create
peace through graceoffer an indestructible opportunity for learning to happen.

Shambhala Grace Warriors

It takes courage to project grace in time of stress.
Relationships by nature offer us opportunities to practice being graceful. Too often, the
voice of the ego guides us toward turmoil. Student and teacher, parent and child, employer
and employee frequently butt heads.

Shambhala is a mythical Tibetan place where through
practice and meditation, all the people developed consistent kindness toward each other.
Everyone in Shambhala, from the workers through the rulers, practiced concern for all
human beings. The population became graceful.

Chogyam Trungpa defines a Shambhala warrior
in the most peaceful terms. A warrior is one who knows who he or she is. Instead of making
war on each other, a warrior through bravery and fearlessness practices being graceful in
the face of stress and conflict. Shambhala practice projects grace. The projection of
grace creates grace. Our relationship is enhanced. The opportunity for learning is
improved.

In contrast, we can follow the voice of the ego. We
can project and receive conflict. In the end, we may succeed in achieving quiet. However,
this quiet is a far cry from peace. Such a relationship is an ego relationship and very
little learning takes place.

Resistance

"Respond with kindness, with grace? Who does
that kid think he is? I'll show him." The voice of the ego, constantly chattering in
our head, would have us believe that we can't respond withgrace. "Areyou
kidding?", it says. The resistance to practicing grace is strong. The Course
states, "If you respond with anger, you must be equating yourself with the
destructible, and are therefore regarding yourself insanely...As you teach so shall you
learn. If you react as if you are persecuted, you are teaching persecution." Anger
only hurts the one who is angry. If we accept this, we see that using anger is insane as
it is self-destructive. We see persecution as a poor choice. We recognize the option of
choosing persecution or choosing grace. Every moment, we can choose to behave as a
Shambhala Warrior.

Shambhala warriorship is the same as A
Course in Miracles' definition of eternity. The Course maintains that it is
always eternity, the ever-present now moment in which we choose our projections and
perceptions, thus deciding our experience. Shambhala warriorship deals with our personal
situation, exactly the way it is, now. The ego would rather we not concentrate on the
always now. It enjoys making judgments on the past.

In our teaching, each person we deal with, we
interact with in the now moment. We can recognize the unconditional goodness of the human
condition in everyone. From here, we can impart our knowledge and share our wisdom as
teachers, parents and educators. Happiness becomes our decision to let go of judgments
based upon the past. Teaching becomes an exercise in joining minds.

Vision versus
Philosophy

We are all familiar with philosophy. The world has
many wonderful schools of thought. Much of the world's wisdom philosophy is similar.
Whether considering the Tao path, emanating love through the Christian heart, training the
Buddhist mind, etc., we need to distinguish between philosophy and vision. While A
Course in Miracles and Shambhala warriorship may be considered philosophy, they are
most successful when consciously chosen and practiced as a way of life.

Consider and examine the daily, moment to moment
ruminations of the mind. The ego spends an inordinate amount of time practicing judgment
of others. It defends itself constantly from any perceived threat. Its philosophy is,
"I'm always right." The ego has no framework other than its own survival. Vision
is our conscious choice. It is a commitment to a cause. The cause needs refreshing and
constant attention. It needs moment-to-moment practice. A vision of grace is the always
celebrating commitment to basic goodness that we all are. It does not necessarily mean
that we will be successful all the time or even most of the time. The vision merely extols
our personal decision to project dignity regardless of the drama of our lives. While
interesting and useful, the philosophy of grace is most effective when transformed into a
vision. With a vision we choose to make it so. Fortunately, the opportunity for choice is
always there, every moment of our lives.

Magnitude vs.
Littleness

Choosing grace as vision is a powerful testimony to
the goodness of the self (and is expanded outward). Every behavior, every action, every
response is a decision to reaffirm who we are. Each of our choices confirms what we want.
In turn, what we want is what we get. A Course in Miracles states, "Every
decision you make stems from what you think you are, and represents the value that you put
on yourself."

One of our functions as teachers is to impart
magnitude versus littleness. Littlenessis following the voice of the ego, judging,
constantly assessing, not letting go. It is the way of upset and distancing ourselves from
each other. Magnitude is conscious awareness of making choices each moment. It is making
choices in favor of maintaining grace. No matter what the external drama of our classroom,
we maintain magnitude. We must practice grace in order to achieve it. Yet, we are by
nature of our being, creations of the universe, perpetually in a state of grace. The trick
is to stay that way. Choosing to do so is a good first step.

Successful wellness presenters and workshop leaders
suggest answering, "Fantastic" to questions such as, "How are you
doing?" They know the power of thought. The suggestion of feeling and being fantastic
places us in a better position for having a fantastic day. Saying to ourselves, "I
will only offer magnitude today to myself and others" becomes a conscious choice to
want it so. For the same reason some prayers end by the word, Amen, as an agreement or
affirmation, we choose to make it so. Captain Picard of the Starship Enterprise bids his
crew, "Make it so." Magnitude requires us to make it so. Imagine our perceptions
based upon magnanimous projection! We choose love that is for giving away. It can only
expand.

Saving the World

The media portray the world as a sad place filled
with pain. Its reporting separates and divides. It presents the world in "they"
and "we" terminology. Yet, there is so much goodness and love in the world. Is
it possible that the media chose to create the world it presents? Through the filter of
its editors, it chooses to see atrocities, violence and suffering everywhere. Might not a
change in view, an altering of perception, looking for and reporting love's magnitudes
bring about a change in the experience of the world? In turn, the media might pass along
the goodness as a witness for love instead of fear and prejudice. It might redeem rather
than judge.

Our classroom offers us the possibility of
saving the world. Even more wonderful is thenotion thatthrough our
behavior, we can teach our students to save the world as well. World salvation is defined
as letting go of all judgments of our brothers and sisters everywhere. It is accepting
them without fear or prejudice regardless of their behavior or their actions in the
non-existent past. It does not however mean condoning harmful, separating behavior. If we
can follow and teach the principles of magnitude through forgiveness, we then take our
world and save it. From A Course in Miracles, we begin to see:

I am responsible for what I see, I choose the
feelings I experience, and
I decide upon the goal I would achieve.
And everything that seems to happen to me
I ask for, and receive as I have asked."

Students are quick to blame. With some modeling,
they can take responsibility for what they see and for what happens. They can accept their
self-worth. They can trust the goodness within. A miracle occurs every time a student
recognizes his worth. Teachers foster miracles by acknowledging their students' power to
create their own worth. The miracle is shared and open for expansion. If the expansion
continues, the planet eventually reaches a collective state of grace.

Is it not then a matter of changing our perception
of what will bring us joy? Since we naturally move toward the sources of joy and we now
recognize that saving the world through forgiveness is joyful, we have the means through
which we can be happy.

Happiness as Choice

Could it be that happiness is a choice? Instead of
gravitating to people, places and things we believe will bring us joy, we can make joy. We
can walk through our fears as Shambhala warriors, ignore the resistance of the ego, choose
to save the world through expanding love thought and decide that happiness through
acceptance and forgiveness are our goal. Asteachers, we can model a behaviorthat
encourages our students to see it as a better way. We can choose a vision of magnitude.

For many people, events dictate how they will feel.
One need witness the large swings in the mood of our students to recognize that many of
their emotions are hair trigger reactions to external events. It is almost as if their
programming is all ego based. We create meaning out of the world we see. By itself, the
world is; events just are. The meaning we place on events reflects the condition of our
internal state of affairs. Our internal state of affairs can be a place of comfort. When
we recognize a desire and willingness to make it so, we open the door for it being so. Why
do we not tell our students how simple and powerful the decision for happiness is? We
spend so much time dealing with academics and discipline that we forget the spiritual. Not
to open a Pandora's box with the word spiritual, it is defined as our moment to moment
internal state of affairs. For example, we often say, "He is in poor spirits" or
"Her spirits are high." With courage and practice, we can choose the state of
our spirit. Given the choice why would we not choose high spirits? We always have the
choice. Our students need to know that.

Summary

Humans gravitate toward what they
perceive will bring them joy.

The grace we get is the grace we project.

A Shambhala warrior is one who knows who she
or he is.

Anger only hurts the one who is angry.

Happiness is our decision to let go of
judgments based upon the past.

Vision is a choice...a commitment to a cause.

I will offer only magnitude today to myself
and others.

I am responsible for what I see.

We can save the world through expanding love
thoughts and forgiveness.

With this, the second issue of A Course for
Teachers, we wish to invite our readers to share their thoughts and opinions. We are
especially interested in accounts of changing perceptions which lead to changes in world
experience. Please forward all correspondence to the address found on page two.
Correspondence may be in any form including handwritten, typed, word processed (any disk
size) plain ASCII, or FAXed at (802) 325-3690 *51.

Presently, an aging Epson RX80 prints the
newsletter. This accounts for the somewhat jagged nature of the characters. With an
increase in subscribers, A Course for Teachers hopes to replace the printer with a
laser device. Subscribers may help by passing along word of the newsletter to family,
friends and colleagues.

Parting Thoughts

There is one thought in particular that should be
remembered throughout the day. It is a thought of pure joy; a thought of peace, a thought
of limitless release, limitless because all things are freed within it.

Courage is the price that life exacts for granting
peace.

Amelia Earhart

It is only when people begin to shake loose from
their preconceptions, from the ideas that have dominated them, that we begin to receive a
sense of opening, a sense of vision.